Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Daylighting Guidelines For Schools
Daylighting Guidelines For Schools
Daylighting
Schools
Developed by
Innovative Design
For
Daylight Dividends
Administered by
Lighting Research Center
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Foreword
D
aylight Dividends is a national program with a mission to help people
reap the human and economic benefits of good daylighting design in
buildings. After recently learning of Innovative Design’s portfolio of
daylit schools, we traveled to North Carolina to examine them. We
independently evaluated one of these schools and will post the full results on
the Daylight Dividends web site (www.daylightdividends.org). We were highly
impressed that these schools were being built with no or low incremental first
cost and that students, teachers, and administrators raved about the
daylighting. These schools can serve as a pattern for similar success in other
districts, so we asked Innovative Design to share how they do it. This Guide is
the result – sound, practical advice and details for daylighting schools. Use it
to guide your school’s designs. You will love the results.
DISCLAIMER
02
Introduction
A
well-integrated daylighting design has a greater positive impact on a
school than any other sustainable design strategy. The following Guide
for Daylighting Schools was developed by Innovative Design for the
Daylight Dividends Program. The guideline is based upon practical
experiences in designing and constructing over 40 daylit schools throughout
the country.
The guide addresses the key design considerations typically confronted when
designing K-12 schools from Orlando, Florida to Portland, Oregon. To achieve
a successful daylighting strategy, school designers must:
Daylight Dividends is
sponsored by:
03
C o n s i d e r H u m a n Fa c t o r s
D
aylighting is not just adding a lot of windows. If uncontrolled direct beam radiation is
streaming through the classroom window and into a student's face, the teacher will simply
close the blinds and negate your daylighting strategy altogether.
The most important aspect of good daylighting design is to understand how it effects human nature.
In addition to the energy and maintenance benefits, daylighting done well in a school may help:
• Improve student performance
• Create a healthier indoor environment
• Increase attendance
In determining the desired footcandle level in a particular space it is also important to understand
how this requirement may change over a typical day.
04
If you determine that the intended function of a space will require darkening for limited time peri-
ods, consider motorized roll shades or motorized vertical blinds. It may seem like more long-term
maintenance but it is actually less. The mechanical stress placed on manual operators by the stu-
dents and teachers (due to uneven cranking) limits the effective life of these devices to under ten
years. The inconvenience associated with the process also results in a high number of these shades
being left closed. Motorized shades do cost more upfront, but will provide greater ease of opera-
tion and result in better performing daylighting design.
When designing your daylighting strategy, consider the option of intentionally creating a slightly
darker location(s) within the room where the projection screen or TV monitor can be located. See
the section on General Recommendations for All Daylighting Options (page 20).
From a student and teacher standpoint, classrooms are the most beneficial spaces to daylight.
Design the daylighting strategy to provide natural lighting for at least two-thirds of the daylit hours in:
• classrooms; • cafeteria;
• special needs rooms; • media center; and
• gymnasium; • administrative areas.
05
Consider the Energy Ramifications
F
rom an energy perspective, the worst thing that you can do is to implement a daylighting strategy
that is not quite good enough. If you create a situation where there is typically insufficient
daylight, resulting in having lights on, you have created a negative energy situation. All the heat
produced by the lights as well as the heat created by sunlight will overheat the space, requiring more
air conditioning.
If designed correctly, a daylighting strategy can reduce:
• electricity for lighting and peak electrical demand;
• cooling energy and peak cooling loads;
• maintenance costs associated with lamp replacement;
• electrical service to building; and, in some cases,
• the number of installed lighting fixtures in the school.
Remember that the more sunlight that you allow to enter the building to address lighting needs, the
more heat you also have to deal with. By placing your apertures correctly, nature can work with
you, not against you.
06
Daylighting strategies can even be successfully implemented in prototype schools. The following
prototype design was developed to address the potential of multiple orientations and entry
possibilities.
As you can see, the classroom wings, under any scenario, run east-west in length with roof
monitors facing south or north. The rest of the building core was developed so that square roof
monitors could be rotated within the same space, always facing south.
The best way to design the size of daylighting apertures is to size the glazing and overhangs so that
just the right amount of radiation is brought into the school during the summer peak cooling
condition. If the glazing is south-facing, this strategy will allow more and more radiation to enter
the space as fall becomes winter. However, if you use a flat skylight, and you design the apertures
to allow the optimum amount into the space during the summer peak, you will not have enough
daylight to fulfill typical lighting needs the rest of the year.
While skylights can be designed with internal tracking louvers to produce very nice daylighting, it
is still difficult to justify them when it comes to reducing cooling peak loads.
Assuming you are in a location that has even a slight winter heating requirement, think about
placing the overhang much as you would if designing a passive solar building. Start out by placing
the outer point of the overhang on an angle about 45 degrees from horizontal, above the head of
the window. This will allow most of the solar gain to enter during the winter when the altitude is
low even at noon.
It is very easy to put in enough glazing to provide a very high daylighting contribution. The key is
to put in as much as you can without negatively impacting the cooling loads (particularly the peak).
07
By moving the overhang in and out, and simulating these different conditions during peak cooling
times (as well as annual simulations) you will be able to determine the optimum location. You do
not want any more radiation entering the space during peak cooling times than is necessary to
deliver the optimal footcandle level. If the space has higher footcandle levels than is necessary
during peak cooling times, you will increase the cooling loads.
Because of the sun's very low azimuth angles that hit the east and west sides, it is very difficult and
expensive to develop any strategy that can produce a "controlled" daylighting solution that
maximizes winter gain and minimizes summer gain. Avoid east and west glazing unless it is very
well protected.
All good daylighting strategies will reduce long-term operational costs. One strategy used to lower
the first costs associated with daylighting is to reduce the installed lighting in the classrooms. To
achieve this, the designer needs to:
• consider how classroom usage changes from typical daytime conditions to nighttime uses;
• evaluate if there are different lighting requirements associated with different uses (e.g., during
the day the school system wants 60 footcandles in the classrooms but only requires 50
footcandles at night, when parent-teacher meetings and other activities require less light);
• determine if there is a minimum amount of daylight that can be counted on to reduce the
installed lighting.
With a good daylighting strategy that is designed to provide two-thirds of the lighting needs during
the daytime hours, there will often be at least 10 footcandles of natural light entering the daylit
classroom even on a very overcast day. The exception could be (depending upon when the school
starts classes) in December, very early in the morning, when it could still be dark outside.
However, if you add up all of these hours when it is still dark outside, the total for the year would
normally be less than a dozen hours. If the space lighting requirements are less for the projected
nighttime use (e.g., parent-teacher meetings) and considering the few hours that are impacted,
lowering the footcandle level makes good sense. The result will be one-sixth to one-fifth fewer
installed lighting fixtures.
However, if the space has the same nighttime function, you will need to install the amount required
to address the full footcandle demand.
Two good examples of spaces where no reduction in installed light is possible are a gymnasium,
since it is used for the same function during the day and evening; and a classroom that will have
night classes.
08
• no more radiation is allowed to enter the building than is required to meet your footcandle
objectives;
• the lights, with the use of photosensors, are automatically dimmed or switched off.
09
transmission, your calculations should also consider the accompanying costs of lightshelves or roof
monitors that would also have to be proportionally added if more glazing is required. Because of
these other system component costs, the tradeoff, from a life-cycle approach, is seldom worth it.
However, wherever low view glass windows are incorporated, low-E coatings should be used to
improve comfort and save energy.
Carefully consider the visible light, solar transmission, and insulative qualities of the particular
glazing system you are considering, with emphasis on how much additional glazing will be needed
to achieve the same visible light transmission. To effectively address energy at the same time you
are creating a good daylighting strategy, it is important to minimize the size and maximize
transmission of daylighting apertures.
When considering the energy-related life-cycle benefits associated with daylighting, don't forget
the maintenance savings associated with lamp replacement. Although the fluorescent lamp life is
actually decreased by employing staged dimming strategies, this is more than offset by the fact that
the lamps are off the majority of the time. When comparing a typical non-daylit classroom to a
daylit one, the lamps in the non-daylit space will require replacement three times more than in the
daylit space.
10
Account for Site Constraints
and Benefits
T
he most obvious site consideration is orientation. A design can only be maximized if oriented
correctly. The potential for cost-effective daylighting is greatly enhanced by elongating the school
on an east-west axis, locating high priority spaces on the north and south exposures. A one story
design, while consuming more land area, also maximizes your opportunities for roof monitors.
11
Select Well-Integrated
Daylighting Strategies
M
ost designers who are considering implementing daylighting
strategies for the first time are very concerned that their project will be
over budget and that the daylighting strategy will be deleted
altogether. This mindset can actually create a negative consequence. In
thinking ahead to the process of "taking the daylighting out of the design,"
the designers never truly integrate the daylighting components into the overall
design, hurting the budget that they are trying to protect.
The most economic and effective daylighting strategies are ones that are very well integrated into
the design from a structural, mechanical, electrical, and architectural standpoint. Daylighting is not
as simple as it may appear. To do it well, the many different interrelated aspects of the school's
architecture, landscape, and engineering must be considered. If integrated, common architectural
components will be serving dual functions. White single-ply roofing can serve as a waterproofing
membrane at the same time it can increase radiation into a daylighting aperture, in turn reducing
the glazing required. Mechanical cooling equipment can be reduced because the lighting loads are
reduced. Only a comprehensive, well thought out approach will guarantee a low cost system that
accomplishes the benefits you hope to achieve.
The opposite is true if not fully integrated. If designed and bid as an alternate, it is unlikely that
the daylighting strategy will be nearly as cost effective or resource smart. The problem arises if
the designers think that the daylighting components will have a good chance of being eliminated.
When the designers have this mindset, it is very unlikely that they will risk designing a smaller
mechanical cooling system, thinking that they may have to redo the design at their cost.
The best way to guarantee a low cost daylighting strategy is to fight against this instinct and
integrate your strategy early in the schematic design phase. With goods schematic design cost
estimates that reflect the added daylighting components as well as the reduced cooling equipment
and eliminated building components (that would have typically been implemented), you will soon
see that the "net" daylighting costs are very reasonable.
12
Consider roof monitors first and lightshelves second
When considering the best daylighting strategies for a particular school, many factors will play a
role in determining which ones to employ. Typically, you should place roof monitor and
lightshelves at the top of that list to consider.
South-facing Lightshelves
Lightshelves incorporated into south glazing strategies are typically the next best option in that they:
• can be used in multi-story situations;
• can bounce sunlight to the back of most school classrooms;
• help shade view glass located below the light shelf; and
• typically cost less than monitor strategies.
Their downside is that all the light is coming from one side of the classroom, making it harder to
achieve uniform lighting. There is a fairly significant drop off in light levels in rooms more than
20 feet deep. Contrast between the brighter glazed wall and the opposite side of the room also must
be addressed.
Until detailed daylighting analysis is conducted, you can use basic rules-of-thumb (for Raleigh,
NC) that will help you in determining the right amount of daylighting glazing for particular
systems. Classroom Gymnasium
(% of floor space) (% of floor space)
• South-facing roof monitor 8% to 11% 5% to 8%
• South lightshelf 8% to 11%
• South lightshelf w/blinds between glazing 15% to 20%
• North-facing roof monitor 12% to 15% 7% to 10%
• High, north transom glazing 15% to 20%
13
Optimize the Most Appropriate
Daylighting Strategies
South-facing Roof Monitors
As the primary strategy, south-facing roof monitors coupled with interior baffles can provide
uniform light within the room and eliminate glare.
The glazing area for a south-facing monitor is typically 25% less than a north-facing one. If you
use both south- and north-facing monitors and want the profiles to be the same, you need to size
the vertical wall of the monitor for the north side, since this will be a greater height.
Specify a light-colored roofing material to reflect additional light into the glazing. A white single-
ply roofing material (aged reflectance of 69%) typically provides the best long-term reflectance.
This compares to black EPDM of 6%, a gray SPDM of 23%, or a light colored rock ballast of 25%.
Because single-ply roofing is smooth and without granules, it is also ideal for rainwater catchment
systems.
14
When white single-ply roofing (see previous page) is placed directly in front of the south-facing
roof monitors, the glazing area in the monitors is able to be reduced by up to 20% because of the
additional reflected radiation entering the monitor.
The white color also provides an overall benefit by reflecting solar radiation that would otherwise
be absorbed and re-radiated downward into the conditioned space. Energy savings also result as a
benefit of a lowered cooling load.
Use baffles to block direct beam radiation, diffuse light, and reduce glare
Daylighting Monitor In the roof monitor lightwell assemblies, white baffles should hang parallel to the glass and be
spaced to ensure that no direct beams can enter the space. The spacing and depth of the baffles
should be designed to block the view of the sky from all points in the room. This will ensure that
no direct beam light enters the space.
Translucent Fabric
Baffles
Corridor
Classroom
Specify fire-retardant, UV resistant baffles
The baffles should be positioned so that they are located up within the well. The higher they are
placed, the fewer baffles will be required.
Curved Angled
Classroom
Corridor
Use translucent baffles to help reduce contrast
Light-colored translucent baffles not only reflect the sunlight into the space, but also help eliminate
contrast from one side of the baffle to the other.
At the bottom of the lightwell, contrast is greatly reduced if there is a transition between the vertical
Daylighting Monitor
plane surface and the horizontal. A 45 degree angled plane is good but a curved transition is even
better. To achieve this curved effect, many designers are now using fiber-reinforced plaster curved
sections that blend nicely with sheetrock.
To help reduce conductive gains and losses, the walls and ceiling of the roof monitor should be well
insulated and incorporate appropriate infiltration/exfiltration, moisture and radiant barriers.
Make sure that the colors used within the monitor well are very light. White is best. Any use of
darker colors will result in a considerable loss in efficiency.
Also consider the acoustic issues. If acoustical ceiling material is used, make sure that the
reflectance as well as the acoustical properties are high. Manufacturers often claim that the paint
color is equal to the reflectance, but you also need to account for the reduced reflectance due to the
fissures in the tile.
15
Let the heat stratify
One of the keys to achieving the desired cooling reductions is to rely on the stratification of heat
within the monitor itself. In that cooling loads are typically more problematic, you should not
attempt to remove this heat by placing supply and return grilles in this area, but instead allow the
heat to stratify. This benefit is often overlooked in designing daylit spaces and comparing one
strategy to another.
% Reduction
chart you can see the 40
35 42
37
theoretical decrease in 30
25 30
efficiency that results from 20 22
14
Daylit Monitor
deeper and deeper wells. For 10 12
example, with a seven foot 0
0 0
deep, square skywell that has 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Depth of Well (feet)
a 70% reflectance, the loss in
70% wall reflectivity 50% wall reflectivity
Corridor effectiveness due to the well
Classroom
will be 50%.
Because of the additional high costs associated with structural elements involved in supporting
solar hot water systems or photovoltaic systems, the back (south side) of selected daylighting roof
monitors can also serve as a mounting surface for the collectors. This "cost-sharing" keeps costs
down and allows inclusion of more sustainable design components that might not otherwise be as
cost effective.
Because of the orientation and limited hours that most school spaces would be used (not early or
late in the summer months) baffles could be eliminated in spaces with north-facing monitors.
In gymnasiums, baffles may be required with north-facing monitors because this space is often
utilized more during the summer.
The baffles also can help from an acoustic standpoint. Other acoustical treatment may be required.
The baffles help reduce the scale of the space, particularly in classrooms, making the ceiling appear
lower.
16
Lightshelves on South
Walls
Alternate Profile with
Horizontal Soffit
Locate Overhang
Shading Along a 45
Degree Projection
From Top of Glazing
This is a very effective strategy for daylighting spaces in rooms (with 10 foot
ceilings) up to 15 to 20 feet from the window and can be employed in multi-story
schools or where roof monitors are not possible. The deeper the room is, the
higher the ceiling has to be.
A lightshelf made of a highly reflective material will bounce the sunlight that
strikes the top of the surface deep into the building. The reflected sunlight will
hit the ceiling and bounce down into the room.
Select durable materials for both interior and exterior lightshelves and design
them to carry the weight of a person.
The lightshelf also serves the vital role of shading the window below, keeping out
heat gain and glare.
17
Stop direct beam with directional blinds
The use of a lightshelf will shade much of the view glass below the shelf but does not stop direct
beam radiation from coming through the top section of glazing and into someone's face. One
option is to incorporate an interior light shelf, but this option often requires a significant width to
effectively block low altitude sunlight. A better option is to incorporate directional blinds to
intercept this light and either reflect it up to the ceiling or toward the walls.
If the lightshelf area is narrow and located adjacent to the perpendicular walls, vertical blinds can
be employed to bounce the sunlight outward, towards the walls.
When installing vertical blinds, make sure that one continuous blind is not installed that covers
both the top lightshelf area and the view glass. Install separate blinds. Having one continuous blind
has a negative effect on the performance of the lightshelf, generally only making it effective in the
months where the lightshelf can effectively shade the lower view glass.
When sizing the glazing area, it is critical to account for the loss in sunlight coming into the space
due to the window treatment.
If the lightshelf glazing is located near the middle of the space and further away from perpendicular
walls, use horizontal blinds to allow the light to be reflected up toward the ceiling and bounced
deep into the space.
If the lightshelf area is more extensive, and is the primary feature lighting a space, the design
requires that the light be bounced deeper into the room. Horizontal blinds will help achieve that.
For horizontal blinds to be effective, they should have either flat or curved blades. If curved, they
should be turned opposite of the way they are normally installed, so they are curved upward.
Additionally, because of potential dirt build-up and maintenance, they should be placed between
the glazing.
When sizing the amount of glazing required, make sure to account for the loss in transmission due
to the internal shades.
Most shades available today are operable and can be closed completely. However, if the space does
not need to be temporarily darkened, the angle of the internal blinds can be fixed, angled up to the
ceiling (approximately 45 degrees). By fixing the angle and not allowing the occupants to operate
1,000 SF Classroom the blinds, there will be less opportunity for the daylighting to be negated.
38’ x 26’-4”
10% Glass-to-floor
If the internal blinds do need to be operated for darkening purposes, it is desirable to have one
setting (at 45 degrees upward) that optimizes the gain while still intercepting direct beam radiation,
and a second "closed" position. Motorized blinds are best suited for this purpose, as the setting can
versus be fixed.
18
has a 38 foot outside wall, a 38' x 2'-8" aperture will provide enough glass. However, if the 26'-4"
Slopped Ceiling
dimension is on the outside wall, and the glass is still 2'-8" tall, you will only be able to achieve a
7% glass-to-floor area ratio - not enough to effectively daylight the space.
To maximize the ability to bounce light deep into a space using a lightshelf, you should consider
the advantages of sloping the ceiling from the top of the south-side lightshelf to the back of the
room (north wall of space). The efficiency, in comparison to a flat ceiling, will be improved by
10% or more.
When sloping the ceiling from the outside wall down to the back
of the space it is often possible to encroach into the ceiling
cavity space just at the window area, not increase floor-to-floor
dimensions, and still have enough space for ductwork. A good
example might be comparing a classroom with a flat ceiling at
ten foot versus one that might be 11'-4" at the lightshelf and 9'-
0" at the back of the classroom.
Because of the lack of direct beam radiation on the north, lightshelves do not provide any benefit
and should not be used.
19
Employ many of the same optimization strategies as with south-facing
lightshelves
Place the glazing high in the room with the head of the glazing at the ceiling.
It is very important to elongate the rooms in an east-west direction so that there is more exposed
wall area in which to place the glazing.
Window treatments should only be used to provide a strategy to temporarily darken a space. Make
sure that the blinds can be fully retracted so that they block the least light possible.
As with glazing in lightshelf areas, do not use low-E glass in the high, designated daylighting
apertures. It will reduce visible light transmission, in turn requiring more glazing.
When implementing a daylighting strategy in classrooms that face both north and south, it may be
difficult to establish an optimum ceiling height. On the south side you can use lightshelves that
generally require less glazing than high, north transom apertures. However, if you use blinds-
between-the-glass, the height of the south aperture will pretty closely match the height of north
transom glazing. To avoid different ceiling heights, some of the lower view glass may be
considered as an integral part of your daylighting strategy. Because blinds would typically not be
used by the students or teachers to block direct beam radiation, it is logical to assume that this lower
view glass be considered. The big drawback is that the teacher might still use the window area as
a display board and block the light.
Assuming that lower northside view glass is considered in your daylighting strategy, it is advisable
for comfort reasons to use low-E glass in this case, sacrificing the 10% to 30% reduction in visible
light benefit. In this case, it will be very important to select a low-e glass that has a high visible
light transmission.
General Recommendations
for All Daylighting Options
Minimize contrast
The success of your daylighting strategy will be determined, to a great degree, by the amount of
contrast that exists within the space. Your design should attempt to eliminate contrast between
bright surfaces and darker surfaces by avoiding bright, visually exposed windows.
Roof monitors help considerably in bringing more uniform light into a space because not all the
daylighting apertures are located on one wall.
If you do use lightshelves, consider using blinds-between-the glass to eliminate any glare.
20
Select light colors for interior finishes
The color of the ceiling, walls, floor, and furniture have a major impact on the effectiveness of your
daylighting strategy. When considering finish surfaces, install light colors (white is best) to insure
that the daylight is reflected throughout the space. In order of importance, the lightest colors
should be installed at the skywell, ceiling, wall, furniture and floor.
All have an impact. The darker these surfaces are, the more glazing will be required to achieve the
same net effect.
Consider a ceiling tile or surface that has a high reflectivity. Make sure that you account for any
fissures in acoustical tiles and how this will impact the amount of light absorbed. Don't assume
that the color of a tile alone dictates its reflectance.
When selecting a tile, question the product manufacturer regarding the listed reflectance. Most will
list the reflectance as if it were the paint color reflectance.
To enhance the economic benefits and provide a smooth transition between varying light
conditions, dimmable lighting controls should be used in most cases. In setting your lighting
photosensor controls, consider the lower limit to which the ballast can be dimmed (typically, 10%
to 20%.)
Depending upon the daylighting strategy employed, photosensor controls should be used to dim
logical groupings of lights.
Implement a lighting fixture layout and control wiring plan that complements the daylighting
strategy.
If a lightshelf strategy is used, photosensors should control each bank of lights (running parallel
to the outside glazing wall) as they progressively move back deeper into the space. Because of the
strong difference in light levels that will occur close to the window and further back from the
window, having each bank controlled individually will help balance out the space.
In a space that has a roof monitor, you may prefer to install one photosensor that controls all the
perimeter lights and a second that controls all the lights within the monitor well.
Mount the photosensors in locations that will allow them to closely simulate the desired light level
(or can be set by being proportional to the light level) at the work plane.
Provide a means and convenient location to override daylighting controls in spaces that are
intentionally darkened to use overhead projectors or slides.
21
Select compatible light fixtures
First consider using indirect lighting fixtures that closely represent the effect of daylighting. Since
this light is reflected off several surfaces and from various sources, the fixtures will provide high
quality light that is more uniform and less glaring.
Computer
Workstations
The teaching wall will have key teaching aids that have unique
lighting requirements. The teaching wall is normally the
location for the overhead projection screen, white board, and TV
monitor. Each of these elements has different lighting needs and
should be addressed separately.
22
Intentionally darken select spaces within
classrooms
White boards need sufficient light but should not have excessive
glare. Since they are often in the same location as the overhead
20fc 60fc projection screen, this can be problematic if the design doesn't
incorporate operable blinds. The overhead projection screen requires
that the light level be below 50 footcandles for viewing unless the
projector has increased lamp capability. The white board could
benefit by having much higher levels (as long as glare is reduced). To
address both of these needs you need to intentionally darken the area
of the teaching wall that has the screen and then use electric lighting
to brighten the wall when the white board is in use.
Below you can see how the wall is intentionally shaded by dropping
the edge of the roof monitor well in front of the teaching wall. At
Millbrook Elementary School, in Raleigh, NC, the wall in front of the
shading device is effectively darkened by at least 40 footcandles more
than the area less than ten feet away.
23
Accurately Simulate
Daylighting Performance
Daylighting Analysis
To determine the optimum daylighting and glazing strategy for each application, the designer
should conduct detailed daylighting computer simulations that compare options. The program
variables should allow you to input different locations (TMY data for various cities) as well as
component configurations including exterior fins, overhangs, glazing types, window treatments,
lightshelf design, surface reflectances, space configurations, ceiling heights, glazing placements,
mullion sizes, dirt build-up, dimming options, and time-of-use schedules.
Simplistically, the goal in conducting this evaluation should be to establish the optimum amount of
glazing, regardless of the strategy, that does not ultimately produce overheating and best creates a
uniform light distribution. This is most easily done early in schematic design, by looking carefully
at the peak cooling months and seeing if excessive radiation is entering the space during key peak
times. If during these peak times more gain is entering the space than is necessary, either reduce
the glazing, adjust the overhangs, alter the depth of the ceiling cavity, or change the overall
strategy.
Analyze your daylighting strategies by conducting computer simulations of each key representative
space. You should analyze numerous points within each space for hourly, monthly, and yearly
contributions. It is important to understand the range in lighting achieved as well as the average
for the space. Once this process is accomplished, you should take all the hourly points within one
space and produce one generic point that best represents the hourly performance of the space in
general.
This process should be accomplished for each different "typical" space until a condition exists
where no more radiation enters the space during the peak cooling times than is needed to achieve
the desired footcandle level. The goal should be to achieve a daylighting strategy that reaches a
"design" footcandle level two-thirds of the daytime. Experience has shown that it is very difficult
to achieve the desired footcandle level more than 70% or 75% of the time without overheating.
Once this is completed, the hourly data (by month) for each representative space should be input
into the US Department of Energy's DOE-2 program, much like a very extensive lighting schedule.
This will result in a detailed assessment of how the daylighting strategy interacts with the other
building components and systems. The output, taking into account the varying performances of the
different spaces, produces a very dynamic model of how the school performs and most accurately
accounts for the typical cooling load reduction of 10% to 20%.
24
The following represents the cooling load reductions that were achieved at six schools due to
daylighting and modified roof assemblies:
The following PC versions of DOE-2 have been developed and are available commercially:
25
Verify and Modify your Design
Process
After your daylit school design has been constructed, it is essential that you visit the school
and measure the light levels within each of the different spaces at different times of the day
and year and compare the performance with your computer and physical models. Every
computer program has particular aspects that can not be simulated as accurately as other
areas. To improve your future designs it is important to understand the strengths and
weaknesses of the program that you are using and how you may modify your runs to achieve
better accuracy.
Part of your post-occupancy analysis should also be an evaluation of how well the human
factors were addressed. Every project offers you a new opportunity to improve your next one.
26
Daylight Dividends
For more information about the program or about the Lighting Research Center, visit:
www.daylightdividends.org
or
www.lrc.rpi.edu
Developed by:
Phone: 919.832.6303
Fax: 919.832.3339
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